American Mermaid

Book info: American Mermaid (Hardcover, 336 pages – Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group) – Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Language: Eng.

Condition: Like New

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR “Sublime.” —New York Times Book Review A brilliantly funny debut novel that follows a writer lured to Los Angeles to adapt her feminist mermaid novel into a big-budget action film, who believes her heroine has come to life to take revenge for Hollywood’s violations.“Brilliantly sharp, funny, and thought-provoking, the gripping story of a woman trying to find her way in our chaotic world.” —Madeline Miller, bestselling author of CirceBroke English teacher Penelope Schleeman is as surprised as anyone when her feminist novel American Mermaid becomes a best-seller. Lured by the promise of a big payday, she quits teaching and moves to L.A. to turn the novel into an action flick with the help of some studio hacks. But as she’s pressured to change her main character from a fierce, androgynous eco-warrior to a teen sex object in a clamshell bra, strange things start to happen. Threats appear in the screenplay; siren calls lure Penelope’s co-writers into danger. Is Penelope losing her mind, or has her mermaid come to life, enacting revenge for Hollywood’s violations?American Mermaid follows a young woman braving the casual slights and cruel calculations of a ruthless industry town, where she discovers a beating heart in her own fiction, a mermaid who will fight to move between worlds without giving up her voice. A hilarious story about deep things, American Mermaid asks how far we’ll go to protect the parts of ourselves that are not for sale.Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by LitHub“Sublime…Langbein intertwines Penny’s story with chapters from her own novel, and this book-within-a-book structure allows us to mourn the gap between the novel Penny has written and the version she’s told will make a good movie…Langbein’s novel considers how we decide who owns a story — and, far more compelling, how we know when a story succeeds.”—New York Times Book Review“Wildly inventive, this book will get you thinking about artistic integrity as it elicits plenty of snarf-yourself laughs.” —Real Simple“Funny, smart, and irresistible. . . [American Mermaid] is about striving for success, bearing the costs that come with it and finding your voice again – even when you’re the one writing the story. I laughed out loud.”—GMA. com“Clever. . . Langbein has written a sincere novel about art, Hollywood, sexuality, feminism, global warming, the cultural zeitgeist—and managed to do so while entertaining with a modern voice and a light touch of humor.”—Chicago Review of Books“[A] hilarious novel [about] something a young woman trying to have her voice heard and find her place in a world that seems bent on diminishing her. This story within a story is a shrewd, sardonic look at Hollywood movie making.”—Associated Press“A funny debut that asks readers to contemplate ambition and the cost of selling out.”—Zibby Mag“A comedy of wordplay. A superhero adventure. A Hol